Like most of us with e-mail, I have been barraged with messages concerning the terrible events of Sept. 11. Many dealt with the question of how a loving God could allow such awful things to happen.
To that question, a few answers have been circulated, reportedly written by Christians who believe in a loving God. In their attempt to explain, however, they have given their imaginations a little too much latitude.
I have no doubt about God's ability to intervene in the events of our lives. And I fully believe that God's loving intervention has, indeed, brought about untold and unnoticed miracles. But I don't think we can ever presume to know the mind of God or His logic and reasoning in these interventions.
We need to be very conscious of the ramifications of our statements about what God has or has not done. Some of the statements I have read are:
* "God was trying to discourage anyone from taking these flights. Those four flights together could have held more than 1,000 passengers, but there were only 266 aboard." Everyone was glad that those planes weren't filled to capacity, but what about the "only 266"? Are we to presume that somehow they didn't listen to God and boarded their flights anyway?
* "God was trying to create obstacles for employees at the World Trade Center. After all, only around 20,000 were in the towers when the first jet hit. Since the buildings held over 50,000 workers, this was a miracle in itself." Are we to presume that the "only around 20,000" were too far down on God's list to receive the miracle of an obstacle to their getting to work that day?
* "God held up two 110-storey buildings so that two-thirds of the workers could get out." Can we surmise that He got tired after two-thirds of the people escaped, leaving the other 33 percent to get out without His help?
I'm sure that the writers of such e-mails didn't mean to imply any of the negative conclusions that one could naturally draw from them. But it does point out the responsibility we have as Christians to witness to the facts, and not to presume to know how God thinks and acts.
The fact is that out of this terrible tragedy, people gave glory to God by coming together to help in so many ways. The unprecedented relief effort that still continues is humankind's witness to goodness and love in our world.
Perhaps a more appropriate response to the question of "Where was God during this catastrophe?" would be, "Look around and see the goodness of the Lord as manifested in the love, concern and unselfish giving of God's children."
(Editor's note: Deacon Cohen serves at St. Joan of Arc parish in Menands.)